Horizontal platforms, once the darlings of venture capital, face existential reckoning as specialized competitors seize territory.

The Decline of the Generalist

For a decade, the prevailing wisdom held that one marketplace could serve all. eBay proved it. Amazon perfected it. The future, we were told, belonged to platforms that could aggregate everything under one roof.

That future is dying.

The Rise of the Specialist

What horizontal platforms gain in breadth, they sacrifice in depth. A collector seeking a specific PSA 10 graded card doesn't want to wade through listings for used furniture and vintage electronics.

Vertical marketplaces understand this. They speak the language of their communities:

• Grading standards specific to each collectible type
• Authentication tailored to common fraud vectors
• Pricing data from relevant comparable sales
• Community features that collectors actually want

The Infrastructure Advantage

Building a marketplace from scratch is brutal. The technology stack alone—payments, shipping, messaging, trust & safety—requires years of engineering.

But what if that infrastructure could be shared?

The next wave of vertical marketplaces won't build from zero. They'll leverage common rails while customizing for their specific community. Same backend. Different frontends.

This is the thesis: One system to rule them all.

What This Means

Horizontal platforms aren't going away. But the most valuable collectible markets will increasingly belong to specialists who:

1. Understand their community deeply
2. Build features that generalists can't justify
3. Move faster than incumbents

The fragmented future isn't a bug. It's the feature.